Nice to see my old Seawind thread still chugging along.

Re: loopingthe Seawind. The high thrust line causes the Seawind to try to exit the loop while upside down. This effect could contribute to the wing rocking effect the recent poster noted on the downside part of the loop.

I find that adding several degrees of up thrust to the Seawind motor mount does a lot to improve thrust line related handling issues. (trying to exit a loop inverted while under power, nose down effects when adding throttle at low airspeed and similar issues)

The best way to do a pretty loop with the Seawind is the throttle back at the 40% point of the way through the loop. At 50% (top), the thrust line effect is usually already noticable.

The original Seawind in this thread died a while back...some water got into the Berg RX and it went straight into the lake at full throttle....sigh.

I do have a new one to set up, one day soon!

Well Thanks for starting this Thread Thomas B. There is a "plane load" of information in this thread. I read most of it before I got a chance to fly someone else's Seawind and after I did, I knew I could fly one myself. I got one, had some great flights and then smashed the wing. I ordered a new wing and another whole one, just in case. Well I now love the Seawind for a float plane.
Now I have to assemble my new Seawind. Had an incident the other night. Bad judgement.
Again Thanks for the Thread, it has been very helpful.
Conehead
Orrin Eldred

Does the Seawind with the stock motor need a 8x6 or a 8x6 slow flyer?
Is it powerfull enough for basic aerobatics (rolls, loops, stall turns etc.)?

I have about 20 flights on my Seawind now and up until last night had no mishaps with it - it really is a great flying sea plane, but I learned a lesson the hard way.

I was landing and came in a bit fast, and the Seawind bounced off the water and rose about a foot in the air. I instinctively applied some power to soften the touch down - BIG MISTAKE with this plane! It immediately drove it straight down into the water, burying the nose under water before I even knew what happened. The hatch came off and the inside completely filled with water. It took about 4-5 minutes to retrieve it with a boat and nothing was working. I disconnected the battery and took it home to dry out.

This morning I plugged in the battery and everything worked fine- awesome! I had applied Corrosion X to everything when I built it and it worked perfectly. If it wasn’t for all the great tips on this thread, I’d be doing a lot less flying and a lot more repairing. Thanks guys

as for the rolling issues, my aleron wires were binding, causing a slow roll to either side, depending on what I had been doing last. I flipped all the wires so they sit closer to the wing, and everything calmed down.
Corrosion X is the only way to fly a seawind. I used to use brush on insulation, then had two off brand escs catch fire with just a little splash. With corrosion X, many esc's will continue to work fully submerged, some quit, but come back with just a little drying.
The seawind is fun, but has go to be the hardest plane I have to land and take off with smoothly. It can be done, but don't get slopy, or there will be water in the fuse, and maybe a full dunking.

I have an old mariner (seamaster variant) that thing will just about land itself, same with my donald, and my "W". The seawind is better in the air than taking off or landing, but it sure looks cool.

[QUOTE=lupy;15517046]as for the rolling issues, my aleron wires were binding, causing a slow roll to either side, depending on what I had been doing last. I flipped all the wires so they sit closer to the wing, and everything calmed down.
Corrosion X is the only way to fly a seawind. I used to use brush on insulation, then had two off brand escs catch fire with just a little splash. With corrosion X, many esc's will continue to work fully submerged, some quit, but come back with just a little drying.
The seawind is fun, but has go to be the hardest plane I have to land and take off with smoothly. It can be done, but don't get slopy, or there will be water in the fuse, and maybe a full dunking.

I have an old mariner (seamaster variant) that thing will just about land itself, same with my donald, and my "W". The seawind is better in the air than taking off or landing, but it sure looks cool.[/QUOTE

Anyone tried a super tiger power .10 in this plane????? I had one a long time ago and am going to get another.
Thanks, Eric

Originally Posted by jlorenco

..........

I was landing and came in a bit fast, and the Seawind bounced off the water and rose about a foot in the air. I instinctively applied some power to soften the touch down - BIG MISTAKE with this plane! It immediately drove it straight down into the water, burying the nose under water before I even knew what happened. .........................

As mentioned a couple of posts back, a few degrees (5 to 8) of upthrust built into the motor mount will help cure this issue. If you do it before you attach the motor cowl, you can easily make things line up and still look good. This does a good bit to improve takeoff performance.

The water handling is VASTLY improved if you trim the tip floats in height, about 3/8" at the rear tapering to about 1/8" at the front. The resulting flat bottom tip float works much better than the v-bottom of the stock wing tip.

Originally Posted by Thomas B

As mentioned a couple of posts back, a few degrees (5 to 8) of upthrust built into the motor mount will help cure this issue. If you do it before you attach the motor cowl, you can easily make things line up and still look good. This does a good bit to improve takeoff performance.

The water handling is VASTLY improved if you trim the tip floats in height, about 3/8" at the rear tapering to about 1/8" at the front. The resulting flat bottom tip float works much better than the v-bottom of the stock wing tip.

So this is exactly what I came to find tonight. I replaced the mount on my seawind and the weather wouldn't co-operate so I still haven't had a chance to tryit. What is the reference line for the thrust line on the seawind? When I look at mine with reference to the tail/fuse -see pic- it looks like mine has downthrust. Or do you use the nose to tail for reference? Can someone give me perspective on how to measure this? Thanks in advance

In my opinion, it appears that the firewall is square (90 degrees) to the model centerline. I would measure the thrust line using that as a reference.

Originally Posted by Thomas B

As mentioned a couple of posts back, a few degrees (5 to 8) of upthrust built into the motor mount will help cure this issue. If you do it before you attach the motor cowl, you can easily make things line up and still look good. This does a good bit to improve takeoff performance.

The water handling is VASTLY improved if you trim the tip floats in height, about 3/8" at the rear tapering to about 1/8" at the front. The resulting flat bottom tip float works much better than the v-bottom of the stock wing tip.

I'll give that thurst adjustment a try. Stock you have to be very careful about applying power when the plane is slow or low. I knew this before I made mine a submarine, but I still managed to overcome my knowledge with reaction .

I have my tips trimmed and it works great. I even touhed down with a wingtip at the same time the fuse touched and it had no inclination to water loop.

I does seem that you have to totally grease the landing to keep it from skipping. I only get a couple of those in probably every 10 landings. I think this plane will make me much better at landings though.

Hey gang, I received my Seawind EP ARF yesterday and considering what to do about the motor. I actually have the recommended Rimfire motor (28-30-950) on hand, but in my humble opinion, this motor feels too small for a plane with an AUW of 24-26 oz.

Forgive me for not reading the whole thread. What's the consensus on using the stock motor? Left to my own hunches, I'd use something like the headsuprc 3530-11 -- something around 250 watts (continuous.) On the other hand, prop size is probably limited to 8 or 9 inches, so maybe a slightly higher Kv is called for (assuming 3S Lipo for power.)

Originally Posted by rafe_b

Hey gang, I received my Seawind EP ARF yesterday and considering what to do about the motor. I actually have the recommended Rimfire motor (28-30-950) on hand, but in my humble opinion, this motor feels too small for a plane with an AUW of 24-26 oz.

Forgive me for not reading the whole thread. What's the consensus on using the stock motor? Left to my own hunches, I'd use something like the headsuprc 3530-11 -- something around 250 watts (continuous.) On the other hand, prop size is probably limited to 8 or 9 inches, so maybe a slightly higher Kv is called for (assuming 3S Lipo for power.)

I used the stock rimfire motor and it flew fine. Not underpowered at all. i am getting another and might put a power.10 in it.
Eric

I put the next size up Rimfire motor in my Seawind. More power than I really need. It will hang on the prop and go straight up if I can hold it there. I use the recomended prop, 8x6, I think that is what it is.
My Seawind under full power is way too fast for me. I fly most of the time about 1/4 to 3/4 throttle almost all the time. For just cruising about, 1/3 most of the time.
Conehead
Orrin Eldred

I have the stock / recommended motor in mine, and IMHO it's perfect for the plane. I have a friend that tried putting a hotter motor in his, and the handling of the plane suffered greatly for it. Mine flies like it was designed around this motor, which I believe it was...

My two cents